San Cisco on international fame, new music ahead of Under The Light Fremantle shows

After a decade of pumping out sunny West Coast pop tunes together, indie music royalty San Cisco is still humbled by the fact that die-hard fans—locally and globally—will do anything to see them live.

The Fremantle trio, consisting of Jordi Davieson, Scarlett Stevens, and Josh Biondillo, is currently on an Australian tour that showcases the band’s latest album, Under The Light.

Playing to their hometown fans at Fremantle Arts Centre this weekend, the musicians are stoked they don’t have to pay for flights coming off the back of a huge European and UK tour.

Throughout May and June, they rocked out to fans in cities from Amsterdam to Berlin, London and Manchester with people even flying in from surrounding countries to see them.

“Because we hadn’t played there in so long, there were a lot of die-hard fans super keen to see us, and had been waiting a long time to see us or they’d flown in from other places where we weren’t playing, which was really cool,” Stevens said.

“Someone came from Chile and there were people from Italy.”

Davieson said it was an incredible feeling to know a WA band could cause such a stir internationally.

“It’s surreal, quite humbling,” he said.

“Europe touring is quite intensive. It’s a lot of driving. And then you’ll set up, and then you’ll play a show, and then drive a bit more, and then sleep and then drive a bit more. So you find yourself some afternoons feeling very tired and run down and uninspired, and then you go to the venue and get up on stage, and you can see these people that are just so invested in what we’ve done for the last 10 years and it really inspires you.

“It ends up being an awesome show because you feel so lucky, feel so fortunate to have fans like that.”

Excited to now play their new tracks to Aussie fans, Stevens gave an insight into their 5th LP created inside Biondillo and Davieson’s house.

The 11-track album symbolises the start of a new era for one of the nation’s most successful independent artists, delving into delicate balance between euphoria and melancholy.

“We worked with a lot of local creatives and musicians on the album so it was a real collaboration. As far as influencers go, I think we’re listening to a lot of 70s, 80s, Gerry Rafferty, but then also lots of modern influences as well. There’s definitely more kind of experimental moments on there from us, which was really fun.”

One of the hit songs, Consequence, has an accompanying four-minute long music video which, incredibly, was shot in one take in the middle of Freo’s High Street.

Davieson admitted he struggled to stay up for the all-night shoot. And there was the bin man to also contend with.

“We had to shoot all night, and I’m not very good at staying awake, (had) lots of coffee, that was a big challenge for me,” he said.

“Wednesday night between the hours of midnight and 7am just seeing lots of characters.”

Following the national tour, San Cisco will start writing again next year and get into the studio to sketch out a new album.

After a big year of shows, one might think the indie pop stars deserve a mini-break but as the band said, “It never stops, the cycle just keeps coming”.

But thankfully all three members share the same passion.

“We’ve always shared a similar overall vision, and we’ve all been individually, in a good position to be able to play in a band,” Davieson said.

“There’s been times when it’s been a bit of a struggle, but then there’s also times when it’s been amazing, it’s just like any sort of relationship. But we’re at this point, we’re just like a family, pretty much.”

San Cisco’s first show on Saturday is sold out and a second performance will take place on Sunday with special guests Haiku Hands.

They will then head off to Brisbane and wrap up in Sydney on November 15.